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Helen Mirren may be known for her Oscar-winning performances, but the dame got it wrong when she dissed numerous Black celebrities by crediting Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian for making big butts acceptable.
In a new interview with the UK’s The Telegraph, 70-year-old Mirren says she thinks it is great women are allowed to have curves. She initially gives the Kardashian clan props for their contributions and acknowledges Lopez’s curves were famous before theirs. But she does not recognize Black stars with notable derriéres like Nicki Minaj or Beyoncé and Serena Williams before her.
“I’m not into the Kardashians, it’s a phenomenon I just don’t find interesting,” Mirren tells the newspaper. “But – and this is the big word: B-U-T-T – it’s wonderful that you’re allowed to have a butt nowadays! Thanks to Madame Kardashian, and before her, JLo. We’re also allowed to have thighs now, which is great too. It’s very positive.”
When it comes to giving female entertainers credit for redefining beauty, she also names a slew of white artists.
“Women were controlled by being shamed, so I love women who have claimed their own bodies,” she says. “Madonna, Chrissie Hynde, Joan Jett,Bonnie Raitt. I love Pussy Riot more than anything in the world. They all raise their middle fingers to this epithet of “slut”. They wear what they want to wear, behave as they want to behave.”
Young stars like Zendaya and KeKe Palmer have made boldly embraced their beauty in a way that celebrates their cultural heritage. The former took on a racist comment about her hair, while Palmer challenged colorism in Hollywood.
Mirren’s blindness to Black contributions to entertainment is nothing new. Back in February when the #OscarsSoWhite controversy started, the actress explained she did not believe the Academy was wrong for excluding Black actors from nominations for the second year in a row.
The London native spoke to Channel 4 in England and said it was “unfair to attack the academy.” She did not believe the ceremony was lagging in progress but rather, “it just so happened it went that way.” She thought Idris Elba would “absolutely” have been nominated for an Oscar, but “not enough people saw – or wanted to see – a film about child soldiers.”
